Loving Dogs

Loving Dogs

Have you ever found yourself wondering, “How much does my dog love me?” Thanks to scientists and their quest to understand the human-dog relationship on a deeper level, we now have some more answers on the subject. According to a recent study not only do dogs seem to love us back, they actually see us as their family. It turns out that dogs rely on humans more than they do their own kind for affection, protection and everything in between.”

Dogs understand the world through their noses. Therefore, scientists at Emory University conducted a study using neuroimaging to learn about odor processing in dogs’ brains. They trained dogs to stay very still so they could do an MRI of their brains while presenting them with smells, both strange and familiar. What they found was that dogs’ reward centers lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July when presented with their owner’s familiar smell. It turns out that in the barrage of smells dogs experience with on a daily basis, they filter out and prioritize their human’s smells above all.

Dogs are the only species that when frightened, worried, or anxious, run to their humans for comfort, just like children do. They are also the only species that seek eye contact with their humans. Humans have always seen dogs as family, but now there’s definitive proof that dogs truly think of us as family as well.